The hero's confrontation with the sacred world in The Trial by Franz Kafka

Abstract

In the whole novel The Trial, Franz Kafka presents a confrontation between the hero Josef K. and the trial which sues him. That confront does not limit to the inquiry and the direct meetings with the authority, everything around the hero becomes a manifestation of the sacred trial. In this article we delimitate some situations that show the evolution of the hero's dread face the world's lack of understanding. They are: the moment of the arrestment, when Josef K. tries to demonstrate that he is superior to the guards and the inspector, underestimating the trial's structure. The direct encounter with the court's members during the first inquiry in which the hero tries to prove his innocence and to accuse the court, when he realizes that the reality around him is not exactly like he thought it would be. The evidence that his superiority was just an illusion is the acceptance of the defeat by the most inferior members of the court. Finally, the final sentence pronounced by the cathedral's priest showing that the court's superiority can not be thought in a sensible way, but by its structural necessity.